Traditionally most young people underwent some form of tertiary education directly after school. This is how they established the foundation for their career. Then there was the stereotypical expectation that they would remain in this career until their retirement. This traditional idea of work is largely something of the past. These days work is more flexible, virtual and subject to continuous change and variation. To cap it all the younger generation regard their work more as an extension of their human existence. We should all take note of new trends concerning work. This also applies to local churches! There is much to learn about the new world of work that is drastically changing right under our very noses. You are invited to give some thought to new ways of work. Discover through this short report which factors caused these new ways of working and how different groups of people think about work. It will help you to function optimally in this new era of work and to live your calling to the full in a relevant and topical way. It will also provide you with a few new skills to create optimal living and working spaces. Welcome to the new era of work!
A GREEN WORLD The economic conditions throughout the world, and also South Africa oblige us to think differently about work. From businesses to local churches and ministries experience huge pressure with regard to profitability, or the meaningful management of rising costs. In addition to this economic pressure that most organisations and churches experiences, there is increasing pressure on all organisations to ‘go green’ and leave a smaller carbon footprint. Technological developments make it much easier to use less paper and process and store information electronically. Instead of long trips to work and back many people work from home easier and effectively. Apart from the monetary savings and higher efficiency that this entails, such procedures also contribute to reducing carbon monoxide in the atmosphere. The good news is that companies that chose to function more eco-friendly, are increasingly able to do it in a profitable and sustainable manner.1
current retirement age in the Western world. By 2030, when all the baby boomers are older than 65 about 18% of the population in the USA alone would have reached this age. Today only 12% of Americans are 65 or older. These statistics indicate the effect of new job opportunities in the future with the retirement of the older generation and the entry of the younger generation to the workplace.3 A note: we should guard against placing different generations in boxes. We should rather use the reference to different generations as a starting point to come to a better understanding of those who find themselves at ease in this type of demarcation. This means there aren’t fixes age limits to the new generation of workers, although it is a fact that younger people adjust far easier to contemporary challenges.
’N GENERASIE-VERSKUIWENDE WÊRELD A GENERATION-SHIFTING WORLD The fact that the baby boomer generation [footnote: In this report Baby Boomers are regarded as the generation of people born between 1946 and 1964.] is slowly but surely starting to retire is nothing new. At the same time it is estimated that 50% of the current world population is younger than 30.2 The research company Pew recently found in a study that the oldest baby boomer turned 65 on 1 January 2011. This means that during the next 19 years about 10,000 people per day will turn 65 – the 1 http://buildipedia.com/aec-pros/design-news/4-reasons-why-businesses-need-to-go-green * In
this report Baby Boomers are regarded as the generation of people born between 1946 and 1964.
2 http://www.sake24.com/Ekonomie/Generasie-Y-eiewys-maar-kreatief-20130130#.UQj4fU771T4.facebook 3 http://www.pewsocialtrends.org/2010/12/20/baby-boomers-approach-65-glumly/
Persons who resonate with the baby boomers’ frame of understanding often display the following characteristics: • Meetings are important to them. They like structured meetings in official board rooms. • Work is scheduled activities that take place in a place or space that is removed from their houses. (Baby boomers go to a workplace!) • Work schedules and working hours are important and should be respected as this group have a limited number of hours available daily to work. Persons who resonate with the mosaics’ frame of understanding 4
home. This entails that the workplace for this generation should feel like their home. • A stronger focus on a socially integrated life means that this grouping can be motivated by rewards that benefit their lifestyle. If the work does not benefit their lifestyle or offer them a healthy balanced lifestyle, they soon change jobs. This supporting role of a healthy and better quality lifestyle is more important than a high income. • An Infographic of UNC indicate that a person who resonates with the Mosaics’ experience of work (1) require immediate feedback and performance feedback (= flatter). (2) They long for a pleasant work experience in team context and sufficient opportunity to learn and grown in the work (= motivate). (3) Mosaics like to work towards a shared mission and purpose as a group (= collaborate).6
• The Mosiacs grew up in a time of quick changes with regard to technology, values, expectations, behaviours, attitudes, personal drive and passion. • The Mosaics regard the engaging workplace as more important than the quality of the board room. To them work is an activity and not a place. Companies such as Knoll5 specialise in adapting the workplace optimally for the new era of work. This is done through modern office furniture, open plan offices etcetera. • This generation prefers short, quick and socially integrated meetings or encounters where work can also be completed. They even have meetings in coffee shops instead of board rooms. Meetings must be held in conjunction with eating, drinking and socialising. • Technology is a primary aspect of their lives. Put another way, technology determines their human existence; this is why meetings and work are adapted around their socially integrated, technological world. • There is a golden thread between Mosaics’ work and personal lives that entails that the line between work and personal life fade at 4
Here the term mosaics is used which was borrowed from David Kinnaman’s book, You Lost Me. This means the same as the term Millenials or Gen Y; someone who was born between 1984 and 2002. 5 http://www.knoll.com/knoll_home.jsp 6 http://onlinemba.unc.edu/mba-at-unc-blog/geny-in-the-workplace/
THE NEW GENERATIONS AND THEIR WORKSPACE Let us move to a next step by looking at how international and local companies serve as example to embrace various premises and associate with them creatively.
any of the ‘more personal’ spaces, or work together as a group at long central tables and seats. However, what Microsoft experienced with regard to this arrangement of their work space was the following: • A 30% reduction in their expenses. • An increase in their productivity. • An increase of their market presence and the possibility to attract talented individuals. • An increase in their employee mobility. • A positive contribution to the environment. Burberry
Unilever’s office in Hamburg This office in Hamburg, Germany has been designed around the following question: “How do you build an office so comfortable that employees want to linger together there?” 7 Their sole aim was that the 1,200 people who work there should comfortably communicate with each other and that they liked being at work. The designers’ objective was to create a special space so that workers do not regard their workplace as a neutral place but as an activity or experience. This was done by an open space with “airy interior” where a central shaft was fitted around the entire building. Spaces were created everywhere where people can stand around and Iinger. 8
What makes Burberry interesting is the fact that they work with both the younger and older generations. How do they do it? Well, the younger workers were told: “Dream big. Act like there are no limitations to your creativity. Tell us about your big ideas for Burberry. If resources, other people and money do not keep you back, what can Burberry become and what will it look like?” The older, wiser workers were told to find the contact point in the real world. It was done by looking at the business plan; the networks in which it can be realised; the professionalism behind it and the possibility to make these plans a reality. 10
Microsoft’s office in Amsterdam This workplace has been organised by office space that do not have any allocated desks or specific offices for certain staff members. This includes senior staff members! In short, they did away with a visible hierarchic system of management. Workers are encouraged to meet in 7
http://www.mnn.com/money/green-workplace/blogs/at-unilevers-hamburg-headquarters-sustainability-is-a-side-effect & http://www.unilever.tt/aboutus/newsandmedia/ pressreleases/haushamburg.aspx 8 http://www.mnn.com/money/green-workplace/blogs/at-unilevers-hamburg-headquarters-sustainability-is-a-side-effect 9 http://officesnapshots.com/2012/01/27/hotdesking-office-design-microsofts-amsterdam-headquarters/ & http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/emea/presscentre/pressreleases/ FutureofBusinessProductivity.mspx 10 http://www.psfk.com/2013/01/future-workplace-trends.html
ON THE LOCAL FRONT NEW WAYS OF WORK ARE HAPPENING Fluxtrends
De Loitte (Woodmead)
Dion Chang, the brain behind Fluxtrends, heads a company based at 44 Stanley Street, Johannesburg. Much of Fluxtrends’ work, however, is done in Cape Town or elsewhere in South Africa. Fluxtrends has so-called coffices everywhere in South Africa because they have a fixed office in Johannesburg. Coffices are “coffee shops as an office.” To Chang and Fuxtrends work is more than just an office space in Johannesburg. It is a lifestyle.
This company has a 9 hole golf course on the premises.
Nestlé Imagine for a moment your working environment was something like this: You arrive at work early in the morning. You first drop your child at the day-care situated on the work premises. You also drop your dog at the day-care for workers’ animals. Then you go to the gym. You shower and immediately get into the lift to your office where you start to work. By lunchtime you look in on your child, then have lunch at a three star restaurant. If you eat something that doesn’t agree with you, there is no need to panic – you simply walk to the doctors’ consulting room on the premises. Does this sound like a dream or something that is only possible at the best work places abroad? Think again! If you are fortunate enough to work at Nestlé South Africa’s new state-of-the-art ecofriendly head office in Sandton, you will experience this scenario first-hand. Nestlé’s aim: “to ensure that an employees’ time at work contributes to a healthier, balanced lifestyle that will in turn be beneficial to the company through the promotion of productivity.” 11 11 http://you.co.za/oh-boy-im-off-to-work/ 12 http://www.itswhatiminto.com/beta/?p=6851 13 http://www.missinglink.co.za/#section-01-01 14 http://www.financialresults.co.za/2010/media24_ar2010/empowerment.htm
Missing Link Blogger Tyronne Bradley said about Missing Link: “At first I wasn’t sure if I thought that this place was a bit kitsch and wasn’t going to post this but after showing it to a few folk I realized that if more companies made going to work as fun as Missing Link, the world would be a better place.” 12 Look at Missing Link’s excellent website here. 13 Missing Link has from a fireman’s pole to a place where you can get a tattoo in their office space. If one looks at the photographs and the way they work, it is clear that they think new and differently about the function of the work space. Media 24 In 2010 Media24 awarded 127 bursaries for part-time study to employees. Various wellness programmes are maintained by the group to ensure the optimal mental health of employees. This varies from programmes to help employees to stop smoking to regular medical, eye and hearing tests for staff who are exposed to loud noise in the workplace. Professional and independent psychological and social support is also offered to staff. Media24 has a wellness centre at their Cape Town office where they print their newspapers and magazines. They also provide regular sabbaticals to staff members with long service to focus on writing without the distraction and pressure of the office. 14
ARE YOU ADAPTING TO THE NEW ERA OF WORK? Furthermore we would like to indicate how these new ways of working could be used constructively to change the world (or even your organisation) towards the right direction. A warning note: If we wished to implement the new ways it does not mean that everyone are suddenly going to work more efficiently. If an organisation took away all offices and use an open plan work space, certain baby boomer thinkers would struggle to adjust to the new working conditions. For persons who are more at home within the thinking of the Mosaics the question would rather be whether they have a new iPad or another electronic platform available at work. And whether they have a certain degree of freedom with regard to office space and working hours. This is why Microsoft in Amsterdam have developed their new office space over a period of seven years and monitored the entire process via employees’ experiences. Back to the new working generation: They are extremely competitive and like to prove that they perform better than their counterparts. Kay Vittee, CEO of Quest Staffing Solutions is of the opinion that “If they are managed correctly, these young workers can become a company’s greatest asset and the driving force behind larger output.” In addition they are also highly creative and good problem-solvers. One should also bear in mind that this new work force gets bored quickly – and
they are more loyal to their own skills and not necessarily to their company. This means that employers should continuously offer new challenges or skills development to retain them. 15 Recent research by the business school Kenan-Flagler in the USA found that up to 64% of young people in job interview enquired about that company’s policy on social media. A third of the respondents said that the freedom to use social media in work time is a more important factor than the salary they earn. This observation emphasises our initial statement that the new generation regards work as an activity, not a place. Geography is no longer exclusively linked to work (as a place where people go to work a certain number of hours a day), and that technology is used optimally in order to swop offices for coffices [a term used by Dion Chang during his talk on 18 April 2012 entitled: The future of work: the death of the career at the Fire & Ice Hotel, Melrose Arch to emphasise the use of coffee shops as offices]. In the current economic climate in South Africa large companies (and churches!) could spend less money on office space (‘work as a place’) if they took this principle seriously. They could also offer workers the option of working from home or other places ('work as activity’). In this way they could lessen the pressure on their budget to a large extent in exchange for the same or higher productivity. Employers should also rethink remuneration for work. The days of long-term benefits, such as a good retirement package, do not necessarily have a place in the new era of work. Remuneration is increasingly weighed up in terms of quality of life. The latest tablet or laptop often is a bigger reward than a bigger salary. Employees who choose to personally determine what workers need, instead of awarding corporate increases, has much more effective and happy workers. Good remuneration for hard work is not unnecessary, but
15 http://www.sake24.com/Ekonomie/Generasie-Y-eiewys-maar-kreatief-20130130#.UQj4fU771T4.facebook
rewards and motivation for effective work is no longer measured in terms of money or understood by the new generation. Illya Pozin who writes in Business Time justly asks what motivates contemporary workers. At the same time he shares nine important motivators: “Be generous with awards. Get rid of managers. Make your ideas theirs. Do not criticise or correct. Make each of them a leader. Take employees to lunch. Give recognition and small rewards. Have company parties. Allow everyone to share in the rewards and pain.” 16 If aforementioned aspects around new ways of working in any business or church are applied it could entail the following actual results: 17 • Higher productivity. Workers with more flexible working hours, or workers who can even work from home, will increase productivity. • Less absenteeism. If workers’ quality of life is placed above financial security, they will take fewer sick leave. • Fewer resignations. With the possibility to work more flexi-time and to have more “part-time” staff continuous resignations of fulltime staff is reduced. • Monetary savings. With less office space and lower transport costs a great deal of money could be saved. In addition is leads to a significant reduction of a carbon footprint.
16 http://business.time.com/2012/08/21/9-things-that-motivate-employees-more-than-money/ 17 http://www.2degreesnetwork.com/groups/employee-engagement/resources/six-reasons-why-flexible-working-could-help-your-business-thrive/
THINK AGAIN ABOUT WORK – BECOME A GEN-FLUX WORKER AND LEADER!
environment. It is a psychographic, not a demographic - you can be any age and be GenFlux. Their characteristics are clear: they embrace adaptability and flexibility; an openness to learning from anywhere; decisiveness tempered by the knowledge that business life today can shift radically every three months or so.” We should therefore not only look at age groups and place people in mosaics or baby boomers as categories, but we should rather get GenFlux leaders on board in our organisations who can help create a GenFlux culture for the context in which we are placed. 20
There is a relatively big chance that someone from every work style and age group work in any organisation or church. How should these drastic differences be approached to attain optimal productivity? And what kind of leader is required to really shine in such working conditions?
• A shared consciousness. It entails that everyone who is part of the team, whether you are a mosaic or baby boomer, pursues the same shared consciousness, vision in their own unique way. • A company with large intellectual and creative bandwidth. Do not appoint people who think the same. Get people on board with different capacities, but who are adaptable and teachable, so that everyone in the organisation can fit in this fast-changing world and still focus on the shared consciousness. • Growth and adjustment do not happen overnight. • Size isn’t everything. For example, take Troy Carter, founder and CEO of Atom Factory, an entertainment company. Even though only 20 people work in this organisation, they among other handle Lady Gaga’s social network of 700 000 Little Monsters. Technology enables small teams to make a huge impact. 21
"Be aware of your workforce and your employees' needs and wants. Assess the specific group because there is so much variation. That is a way to start creating a workforce that is inclusive" said Laura Sabattini, senior director of research at Catalyst. Alison Maitland, coauthor of Future work: How business can adapt and thrive in the new world of work 18 agrees: "Companies that are going to have three or four generations in their workplace really do need to think about those different work styles and different preferences. Falling over to accommodate only Generation Y would not be the most productive way and could backfire." 19
What are the characteristics of this new GenFlux that Robert Safian describes, and how can various generations achieve this?
We agree with Robert Safian who wrote the following on fastcompany: “Generation Flux describes the people who will thrive best in this 18 http://www.amazon.com/Future-Work-Businesses-Adapt-Thrive/dp/0230284221 19 http://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/20/business/generation-y-global-office-culture/index.html?c=&page=3 20 http://www.fastcompany.com/3001734/secrets-generation-flux 21 http://www.atomfactoryinc.com/
• Do not be afraid of failure. GenFlux leaders are not scared of trying. Of course it means that you will experience failures. Don’t let it cause you to loose heart, but ask yourself what was learnt from the failure and what could be done to prevent failure the next time. Jason Fried said in his book, ReWork 22 we should not think of failure as a virtue or good characteristic. Try your best not to fail, but don’t allow your fear of failure prevent you from trying again. • Take a breather. It is important that GenFlux leaders regularly take a breather to recharge in order to work creatively again. Volkswagen in Germany for example recommended to their employees to switch off their cell phones when they are not at work. It creates the necessary technological quiet in their lives to recharge. Angela Blanchard, CEO of Neighborhood Centers, said: "The pace of life hasn't changed, even if the pace of communication has. Do people fall in love more quickly? Do people trust each other more quickly? I work in my garden: You cannot make flowers bloom faster.” 23
22 http://www.amazon.com/Rework-Jason-Fried/dp/0307463745/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361259717&sr=8-1&keywords=rework 23 http://www.fastcompany.com/3001734/secrets-generation-flux
HOW CAN IT WORK IN THE CHURCH? Churches have the option to ‘encamp’ and hang in there until all the baby boomer generation spiritual leaders have retired and then expect the new generation of leaders to take over the reins. Or we could ask ourselves what we could do to organise any local church or Christian organisation in such a way that GenFlux leaders and employees could develop employees optimally and support them so that they can change the world in Jesus’ Name? 1. Everything starts with much more effective appointments with reference to the GenFlux way (as Chris Smith puts it in his own unique way in a blog): 24 ▪
▪
Appoint wise people. Appoint someone on the basis of his/ her character and not simply on the basis of his/her CV or previous performances. Ask the question how this person will work with the rest of the team. Is the person appointed because he thinks like the rest? Sometimes someone should be appointed who doesn’t think like the rest. It will increase the intellectual and creative bandwidth in any local church or Christian organisation. The workplace should be arranged in such a way that creativity can flourish and grow. Do this by focusing on what would let each new person’s heart beat faster. Establish what the person is passionate about. How can any workplace enable that person to live out his passion more
▪
effectively? How can his/her work fit in with the church/ organisation’s shared consciousness? Remuneration. Financial remuneration is not unimportant. Make sure the new person is happy and well cared for financially. However, ask every person what he/she needs to live out his/her calling and vision in the new church or workplace fully. What will make this person more effective for the Lord and as a blessing to others? What will make his/her heart beat faster? What is his/her deepest passion? He or she might need something other than just a thirteenth cheque.
2. Sometimes any local church or organisation has to stop filling vacancies in the old way of doing things. If work pressure within local churches and organisations increases, a better question would be whether such work still falls in the vision of that congregation or Christian organisation. Put another way, should our church or our organisation still keep doing these tasks? Isn’t it time for a new season where we believe “less is more”? And where we realise we need not be everything to everyone. Alternatively it should be asked whether a current employee should not be redeployed to take over certain tasks. And whether a member of the congregation or volunteer could help after hours as part of their service to God? If new positions have to be created, it could be a much better route to appoint one or two people on a part-time basis. Only their spiritual skills and inputs are bought in. The stereotypical idea that all workers have to work “full-time” in local churches or Christian organisations isn’t always cost-effective or realistic.
24 http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2013/02/dont_hire_entrepreneurs_hire_e.html?utm_source=Socialflow&utm_medium=Tweet&utm_campaign=Socialflow
3. In research carried out by Cisco to determine the expectations and behaviour of workers the following was found 25: • 60% of employees believe they don’t have to be in the office to be productive • 66% of employees wish for work flexibility • 66% of employees will accept a smaller salary for more flexibility at work, less flexibility for a bigger salary. In conclusion this leaves us with the following important questions: • How will creativity and job satisfaction be promoted in existing churches and Christian organisations if more full-time staff members are allowed to work from home? Such steps require larger trust and less direct control, but new research indicated that such brave steps yield great results in terms of loyalty and output. • How will efficiency be promoted is staff are allowed to work flexitime where possible? A normal 8:00 to 13:00 half-day position, or a fulltime 9:00 to 17:00 working day makes sense in cases where routine tasks have to be completed daily, but to expect this from everyone is not realistic. Christian organisations and ministries will have much more efficient work force if individuals would be allowed to work more flexible working rhythms in a transparent manner. • How will productivity be promoted if the focus is stronger on output and the efficient completion of tasks, rather than the number of hours it takes to complete specific tasks? The fact is that each person works at his own tempo. It is a mistake to measure anyone’s productivity exclusively in terms of hours. A GenFlux leader will know his/her context and people well enough to create the optimal time, space and opportunity to be the best person that God intended them to be. Please go and rethink work on the basis of a GenFlux DNA. 25 http://www.cisco.com/web/about/ac79/docs/ps/Work-Life_Innovation_Smart_Work.pdf
MORE ABOUT ECHURCH RESEARCH Echurch prioritises the development and support of the leaders of the local church by means of training, resources and relevant research. With research reports, trend briefings and other material, we look at the world through the lens of Scripture. All the echurch research and trend publications are available for download from www.ekerk.org, free of charge. You can also subscribe to the monthly echurch Learning Community newsletter for updates on the latest publications, conferences and resources. If you want to become more involved, or if you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact Mynhardt at mynhardt@ekerk.org, or at 082.853.6483.
Š Ekerk Vereniging 2013 Compiled by Pierre Engelbrecht & Mynhardt van Pletsen.
For more information on echurch research, please visit www.ekerk.org. To attend or organise an echurch conference about the specific material, please contact pierre@ekerk.org. Thanks for reading!